Modern Hue & Cry.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14274, 13 August 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

Modern Hue & Cry.

' WIRELESS" AND THE CRIMINAL "Toliunga," in the Auckland "Herald," commenting on the capture of Crippen, says:— To-day, we live in a world where th« criminal has no refuge, and where every State combines to hunt down the flagrant oifeuder against fundamental laws. Any man may kill a King or betray his country, and still find protection within the frontiers of libertyloving states, but no man may kill a beggar and find sanctuary, no man may rob on the highway and sleep secure from the "hue and'cry." The youthfulness and immaturity of society and civilization may be gauged from the fact that a. thousand years ago the murderer and the robber were as sale beyond the frontier as any assassin or traitor is to-day, and that frontiers were as common as blackberries. The ultimate penalty was outlawry, and outlawry simply meant that if a man wen; wise he stayed away from the district wherein he might be killed on sight.

in the early Saxon period of England, as in the later O-aelic period of the Scottish Highlands, which only terminated witli the 4.o's, the punishment of crime, the protection of the law-abiding against the lawless, was the duty of the sept or elan or tribe, and did not concern the community at large. Saxons and Highlanders alike organised for war, joining forces for common military operations, but they did not organise nationally for the enforcement of local order. They left that largely to the individual, supported by the neighbours, who were related to him by blood and marriage,' and bound to him by common interests; when the offender found no support punishment was, short and sharp; when he was supported, oifendings gave ri.-e t-o deadly local feuds. At worst, be found shelter and toleration the moment lie rlad : there was no use in following him if he bad a. good start. Doubtless the lawlessness and anarchy of such periods depended mainly upon this security from punishment, and the strong inclination of the turbulent Teutonic stock for kings and over-kings points the road they" followed to fmd relief. For the growing area and reducing number of the early kingdoms of Lmgland meant that the criminal and outlaw were being slowly ousted from their sanctuaries, and that the "hue and cry'' was to be raised not merely from river to river but from sea to sea.

The "hue and cry" .as wo first have it is not only a recognition of the common obligation of good tribesmen to join in pursuit of a fugitive who has wiongod one of them, but is a proclamation that whoever docs not do this is against the law and the King. It is the verbal "King's Writ," which in formal writing has been the banner of Law wherever British authority lias entered, and has been borne by armies against heathen multitudes, who foolishly denied it. The "hue and cry" outruns the writ and races ahead of all formal process. It is the shout of informal authority, answering the cry of the wronged. And those who hear it, being King's men. must obey the summons and join'-in the chase, following as far as the more formal King's writ would run.

In the early days, the Saxon "hue and cry" stayed near at hand, paused at a neighbouring mountain range or near-by river, hesitated on debatable ground, faltered whenever it drew away from the King's castle. It never crossed Watling-street in Alfred's time it never penetrated the Welsh borders; it never swept over the Dcnoidah to Scotland ; it had never wet its" feet in the narrow seas. Yet Alfred was a great King, who hanged unjust judges, and made the Law strong and terrible; and a hundred or two years before Alfred, a We.ssex sheriff got no aid from the Kentish men. who opened their doors to Wessex 'outlaws, but guarded their frontier against Wessex law. And now—the "hue and cry" holds throughout the Three Kingdoms, and throughout the whole British World. More than that, it holds its way. hardly checked and little weakened, wherever European Governments weild authority.

Tlin fugitive from justice in the Twentieth Century cnnnot find a. soft pillow though ho search for it to the ends of the earth. There is no state in winch a European ran live which will not only surrender him. hut ioin in th« hunt for him; there is no heathen country into which a European armv could penetrate which will not surrender him on demand rather than risk' inevitahlo war. The political offender still finds friends and nroter-tVn-. 1,,,-f.. not the criminal—and the hopelessness of flight has unmistakably broken tie

heart of lawlessness, and is fast making crime petty, obscure and mean. With modern inventions even ships are no longer an aid to fugitives; thev are a deadly Iran. Once an EuglUh -riiniiia] who could hide aboard a. vessel bound tor .Voir Zealand, and safely dear the channel, liarl good reason to expect that he would reach undetected ;l . quarter of the world where thev knew nothing of his crime, and to whVh the "hue and cry" had not extended. Rut now. the "line and cry" is shouted over the .sea by wireless telographv. and every sbipman. watching for the fugitive, joins in the chase "in the Kind's name.

A thousand years ago. the criminal was almost a hero, was general! v secure mm just.ee, found shelter near at baud; to-day, the criminal is a. degenerate, is never secure, and cannot nnd shelter anywhere. A thousand years ago. even- man wore a. weapon; to-day. weapons m orivate are almost unknown. It may take a. million years to make a. coal-measure: but "in a thousand years wo may establish that ««■ and ~,-dor which is essentially necessary lor human progress.